Music / Twitter
One Direction's Twitter profile is another source of marketing for the band.
How many marketing attempts can you see, just from this screenshot?
The cover picture is an advert for their most recent album along with details of where you can buy the album through a range of portals.
Profile picture is the same one as on Facebook and shows the band each holding a copy of the newest album, acting like further marketing material for their album.
The bio area is used to remind fans that their album Made in the A.M. is “OUT NOW” and the capitals are used for emphasis.
The first web address on the left is a clickable link and it takes you to iTunes where you can buy the album.
There is another web address that is also a clickable link and this takes you to their official webpage for further promotion.
On the right hand side, Twitter has suggested other artists that you may also be interested in. This list contains each of the band member’s individual Twitter accounts so fans can engage with their favourites individually but also the band as a whole.
The pinned tweet is a Gif of Liam from the band accepting an award at the Brit Awards. He is quoted as saying “One Direction is who we are, it's who we always will be" which is a way of trying to keep the fans interested after their long break.
Twitter is all about building followers and to do this well, artists need to know their audience extremely well and craft the perfect tweets for them.
Analyse the examples and evaluate what techniques One Direction are using and how they are engaging with their fans.
Each of the band members have their own Twitter profiles, as well as the band having its own. This means some of their tweets are just retweets of the individual members. This is a way of ensuring more fans see their tweets as the retweet will appear on both pages.
This tweet references lyrics to one of their songs, something fans would know and therefore would feel included in the tweet.
Use of emojis helps to connect with younger audience members who will be familiar with using these themselves. It also makes their tweet look a little more exciting and helps to convey emotions, which can be difficult in Tweets.
By including another artist’s twitter handle, such as @benwinston, @GabeTurner73, @bigboturner and @Fulwell73, Niall is tagging others in this tweet which means not only will all his followers see it, but all of theirs will too. This may result in some of their followers following Niall.
In addition, as this is a retweet too, the tweet will also appear on their pages. This may result in some of their followers following the 1D page.
By praising the fans, Niall is ensuring they want to read more of his tweets as he is showing his appreciation and they feel valued.
Use of emojis helps to connect with younger audience members who will be familiar with using these themselves. It also makes their post look exciting.
Use of an embedded video allows fans to listen to their song on Spotify for free.
Use of a hashtag, such as #TuesdayTrack means that followers can click this and it will take them to all of the tweets which contain this hashtag. Using this consistently means that 1D are creating and filling a whole page of tweets that followers can browse.
By making the post culturally significant, tying in the song choice to the fact it was Valentine’s Day, means that fans are more likely to retweet this as it is such a special day. They may well share the track with their loved ones who may not already be 1D fans and all of their friends and the friends of the person who they shared it with will see it too.
Use of hashtags, such as #SaturdaySnap, means that followers can click this and it will take them to all of the tweets which contain this hashtag. Using these consistently means the band is creating and filling whole pages of tweets that followers can browse.
Use of emojis helps to connect with younger audience members who will be familiar with using these themselves. It also makes it really clear what the purpose of the tweet is.
A selfie is a much more personal shot than a staged or edited professional picture and so offers a more personal connection with the band. The closeness and proximity of the band members, along with the direct eye contact will engage audiences.
As the shot was taken during a live performance, anyone that couldn’t be there will still feel a part of the action through such a shot.